Leadership development

Who are the future leaders in your church?  As I attend various associational and denominational events I notice that it is often the same people at these events year after year.  Many of those attending are older individuals who have provided leadership in their churches for decades.  I have attended denominational events for two different denominations in the past three years that amazed me at how young many of their attendees were, but for the most part the leadership I meet look a lot like me, gray.  At some point the ones who have provided leadership in our churches for decades are not going to be able to continue.  What will our churches do then if they have not been preparing people to step into those leadership positions?

Smaller churches now face a number of challenges, and one of them is the challenge of developing leaders.  What we don't want to do is to find we have an open position and ask someone to fill it without having prepared them for the task.  We've done that too often in the past, and that is one reason we have some of the problems we have.  We need persons in the pipeline who are being prepared to provide leadership in our churches.  If John Maxwell is right, and I believe he is, our churches will never rise above the lid of their leadership.  If we want to see our churches become more effective in their ministries we must be intentional in identifying potential leaders and providing them the resources that will enable them to provide solid leadership.

As a bivocational minister you may wonder how you can add this task to your list of duties.  First, you have to understand that leadership development must be a priority for you.  Other people can fill the communion cups and visit Sister Bertha when her cat stubs its toe; you have been assigned the task of equipping the saints to do ministry (Eph. 4).  Developing leaders will do more to ensure the future success of your church's ministry than any else you do, so it must be a priority.

Second, realize that not everyone wants to be equipped to be a leader nor should they be.  I believe leadership is a spiritual gift that God gives certain people, and they are usually easily identified.  They will be the ones who will want more than what is offered in Sunday school.  They want to go deeper in their relationship with God.  They ask good questions about faith and ministry.  They are often dissatified with the status quo and may have some ideas about how to move the church forward, but because they are not in a leadership position they may be reluctant to share those ideas.  You want to identify these people and begin to invest more of your ministry into their lives.  Isn't that what Jesus did with the twelve?  I believe His example is a good one for each of us to follow.

Third, don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to develop leaders by yourself.  Your denomination or judicatory may have a leadership development resource you can use.  Our region offers the Church Leadership Institute to train lay leaders and bivocational ministers, and we've had over 100 people take classes through this program.  Some who have graduated felt called to bivocational ministry and are now pastoring some of our churches.  Many others are providing leadership to the churches as lay leaders.  If you have something similar available, challenge your potential (and current) leaders to consider enrolling.  I would also encourage you to challenge the church to invest in this training by paying at least half of the fees.  They should see this as an investment in the future of the church and in the future of the Kingdom of God.

Leadership development is one of the most important things a church does.  Many of our churches are in a downward spiral, and they will never get out of that spiral without excellent leadership.  Even more churches are caught in ruts that in some cases have lasted for decades.  It will require great leadership to bust out of those ruts and once again become the church God had in mind.  As you begin to think of 2012 I urge you to put leadership development at the top of your list.